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Really nice tea. Red wine with only slight hints of the woodiness you get from other ripes. The flavor lingers pleasantly after you sip. The bitter floral elements of the raw purple tea are faintly present but muted by the ripe purple tea. Surprisingly smooth overall.

As an experiment, I’ve mixed this tea half-and-half by weight with the 2022 Menghai Dayi V93 ripe tea I also purchased from YS. In my opinion, this combination makes a knockout ripe blend. The strong sandalwood and licorice-like notes of the V93 nicely compliment the winelike qualities of the purple teas.

Received a couple of these “coins” as a free sample with my recent order. I am happy that this was sent as a sample, because I often shy away from organic teas because I have heard that they are often inferior. This is the first ripe pu-erh that wowed me. Has the familiar sandalwood notes like other ripes I have tried, and a touch of rose florals (a favorite of mine – I like rose florals). But what clinches it for me is there is a little something extra – a nice twist of licorice-like flavor to make things really interesting. Unusual for Yunnan Sourcing in that there are no dates of production listed for this tea, so not sure how new/old it is. It was listed on the website only pretty recently, I believe, so might be kind of new. No off/fishy tastes here in my opinion, and this is ready to drink right now. Definitely want to pick up some of these on my next order, and best thing is not a very high price!

A dark and comforting tea. Easy to drink, with a decent amount of sweetness and very little bitterness. Works well for me brewed western style, and I typically brew it for 3 or 4 steeps (starting at 2 minutes and working up to 5 minutes after an initial 30-second rinse). Might even have a few more good steeps, but that is too much for me. Not sure what the difference between sandalwood and oak would be, but I guess if sandalwood is on the softer side with more floral and spice tones, I can see that. I’m not feeling any root beer or cinnamon here. Vanilla and cherry notes for sure. No really strong earthy or funky tones – smooth is the name of the game here. Not super complex, really, but very pleasant. I’m not a total shu-poo-head yet, but after trying this tea I might be on my way.

Spring 2024: It’s okay. Not bad for the price, I guess. Not much lingering flavor, and not nearly as much of the nice fruity/floral/minty/etc notes you can get from white teas sourced from other areas. This one kind of has softer floral notes and more of a vanilla flavor going on. Some nice hoppy notes. Doesn’t linger too much. Kind of simple and boring.

I like this even more than the Spring 2023 Heaven’s Door raw pu-erh I tried recently, and this tea is at a more affordable price point, too. A similar flavor profile between the two, but this autumn tea has more perfumy florals (violet) to go along with the cotton candy sweetness, which is also somewhat nectar-like. This tea is a bit more complex with more grainy flavors and apricots, too, and some deeper more leathery notes to it. A really wonderful tea!

Spring 2022: This is a really lovely tea. One of my favorite oolongs. Just be careful to wait until it is at least a year old or so before you drink it – The roast will take a while to smooth out. I’m sure it is probably outshined by the some of the fancier and more expensive grades, but most of those are far more expensive and outside my budget.

What you get here is a very nicely balanced tea, with florals, fruitiness, and some woody notes present. On the floral side, it has the “orchid” florals which are typical of a lot of oolongs. On the fruity side, you get a nice grapey wine-like aroma kind of on the red wine side, but the surprise here is not only grapes but some nice cherry notes coming out in the flavor. I haven’t found a lot of teas with cherry notes. And a nice touch of oak to compliment things, not too much wood but it is there and welcome.

Not a tea I need every day, but teas like this make me wonder why I bother drinking anything else sometimes.

I never really love Assam teas. Not sure why I bought this one; I guess I am always hoping to be surprised. The dry leaves are beautiful, showing off a nice clean-looking and fine picking, with abundant golden tips interspersed throughout an attractive sea of black leaves. Not a dusty black like some teas, but a healthy, almost shiny, black. I think Mighty Leaf is great at picking teas, based on my sampling of some of their other teas, so I trust this is a decent example of a good Assam tea.

The tea gives a dark liquor, and a nice honey sweetness, and pretty much has a standard “black tea” flavor profile. Reminds me of a typical commercial black iced tea type flavor, but I am drinking it hot. But pretty much like buying an unsweetened bottle of Lipton or Gold Peak black iced tea or something like that.

Where this tea, and pretty much every other Assam I have ever tried, loses me, is at the end of the sip when the aftertaste emerges – Makes me feel like I’m sucking ashes out of a cigarette ashtray all of a sudden. Not a fan of that flavor. It isn’t so much the bitterness which bothers me, and there is some present, but just the “ashtray” sensation which seems to taint Assam teas in general.

Weird, because I love Yunnan black teas, and I understand they share a lineage with the Assam black teas grown in India. Not sure why it is so difficult to like them for me, then.